The Mech Touch

The Hexadric Hegemony was a very hierarchical state. Older, wiser women that other Hexers acknowledged as matriarchs generally exercised firm leadership over many aspects of Hexer society.

The Hex Army was no different. Jointly managed by the six matriarchal dynasties, the strongest and proudest mech force of the Hegemony adhered to a rigid set of rules and customs.

Every change needed to undergo a process. Every action needed to be approved by an authority.

To the matriarchs, not even the best and most influential Hexer Master Mech Designer was allowed to arbitrarily add a new mech model to the Hex Army's lineup! Every single proposal had to undergo an extensive approval process before showing up at the battlefields.

Of course, it was not good to delay the introduction of new mech models too much during times of war. Ever since the Komodo War broke out, the matriarchs loosened some of the restrictions in order to expedite the process, but it still remained a daunting challenge to propose any changes!

Now, the board of matriarchs that ordinarily wanted to tackle every proposal at its own pace suddenly faced a huge clamor from the lower ranks of the Hex Army.

News traveled quickly within the unified Hex Army. The Wrathful Doves, which previously suffered heavy losses in order to obtain gradual progress, suddenly tripled their pace!

The battle footage that circulated within the Hex Army had become incredibly evocative.

Each time, the Hexer mechs attacked the fortified Fridayman positions with undaunted aggression and courage!

The modest amount of energy supplied by the Blessed Squire allowed valiant female Hexer mechs to overwhelm more opponents!

And by the speed in which the enemy defensive lines fell apart, the Fridaymen who faced the new mech in battle obviously didn't feel comfortable!

All of these factors propelled the Blessed Squire into a mech that every landbound mech unit within the Hex Army coveted!

The incredible utility provided by the Blessed Squire not only attracted the mech divisions in charge of invading Coalition space, but also appealed to the Hexers in charge of defending Hegemony space!

There was no way to suppress this demand! The Wrathful Doves did not introduce any other mechs or noticeable measures. Since the first day, too much news and footage had spread throughout the Hex Army to suppress the difference the Blessed Squire could achieve on the battlefield.

Marrakath III, which was known as one of the toughest fortress planets of the Carnegie Group, was already collapsing under the unstoppable momentum of the Wrathful Doves!

Who didn't want to obtain the same power the Wrathful Doves were lucky to grasp? The Hexers believed that as long as the rest of the Hex Army achieved the same level of success, taking over the Friday Coalition was just a matter of time!

Under the tide of so much demand from the lower and middle ranks of the Hex Army, the higher ups found it very difficult to take their time on this difficult decision.

While the higher ups wielded an incredible amount of power in the Hegemony, the state was simply too big for a small number of matriarchs to impose their will on every Hexer citizen.

In particular, the Hexer mech pilots was the most important interest group in the Hegemony at the moment! As the ones who had to bear the burden of fighting the Fridaymen and winning the Komodo War, the matriarchs did not dare to do anything that would result in widespread animosity or dejection from their own soldiers!

The matriarchs involved in this pivotal but incredibly controversial decision were constantly gnashing their teeth ever since the Blessed Squire debuted.

No leader liked to be forced into doing something by their own underlings! The matriarchs especially did not like to be forced into adopting a decision which went against their own rules and traditions!

Many Hexer leaders knew that DIVA was the ultimate party responsible for driving up demand for the Blessed Squire.

"Those spies are too insolent! They're forcing our hand!"

"What can we do? Even if DIVA ambushed us, it's too late now. Too many Hexer generals are calling me every day asking whether we put our stamp of approval on this tainted mech."

"Rules are rules! Our Hegemony rests on the superiority of women! The quality standards of the Blessed Squire design is wholly inferior to the works of any of our Seniors. It's just a Journeyman-level mech, and a rather rough one at that due to the lack of time and manpower invested into its design!"

"The Blessed Squire's performance parameters are secondary to its value. The main reason why it has caught on so much is because of that boy's unusual design philosophy! It's something that we have never witnessed before!"

"Perhaps we should take a look at it ourselves. I recall that DIVA has invited us to witness a presumed masterwork reproduction of the Blessed Squire…"

Regardless of the hype that emerged around the Blessed Squire, the matriarchs did not want to be rushed and forcefully announced a period of deliberation.

The longer they delayed their approval, the greater the frustration of the Hex Army! If the problem grew significant enough to affect the overall state of the war, then it didn't matter if the matriarchs kept dragging their feet.

The Hex Army would just start to produce and field the Blessed Squires on its own, thereby openly defying the authority of the matriarchs!

That was a nightmare scenario that the higher ups of the Hegemony did not want to come to pass!

When the good news spread to the Larkinson Clan, Gloriana immediately became ecstatic!

Though she was busy with working on her next projects while simultaneously taking charge of the wedding preparations, she still made contact with the Hex Army and various other important institutions in order to lend her own weight to the Blessed Squire's adoption!

The news of the Blessed Squire and its drastic impact on Marrakath III already spread throughout the rest of the star sector. Yet again, the Miracle Couple had stirred up the waters!

Within a star system which was formally hailed as the economic heart of the Bright Republic, two resplendently-dressed women stood alone in one of the observation chambers of a fleet carrier.

The sandy surface of Bentheim provided the two observers with a desolate view of the planet that once hosted a lot of industries. Billions of productive Brighters had perished when the sandmen descended from orbit and swept every human construction.

"Ves Larkinson has succeeded in leaping from the pond of the Bright Republic." One of the women stated. She wore an alluring red dress that was decorated with various medals and combat awards. "The annoying mech designer you met several times has grown into a formidable monster."

The other woman, who wore a highly-decorated military uniform, scowled for a moment. The neat brown hair that framed her face seemed to grow a little frayed as a strong aura vibrated around her very being!

"While Mr. Larkinson is deplorable, his design prowess is considerable." She stated. Her voice seemed to convey a lot of force! "Ever since he aligned himself to the Hexers, it was only a matter of time before one of his works emerged in the Komodo War. The Sand War has already proven that his works can play a major role in the outcome of any conflict no matter the scale."

The two women fell silent for a moment. Neither of them cheered the success of one of their adversaries.

"Does this change your decision?" Lady Amalia of Imidris gently asked.

"Yes." Venerable Foster admitted.

As one of the most talented expert pilots of the Hafner Duchy, her strength was recognized by the entire Vesia Kingdom! Even though the Bright-Vesia War and the Sand War had already ended, her resonance strength still grew at a measured pace. At her relatively young age, that turned Foster into one of the dazzling stars of the Mech Legion!

Yet this famed and decorated expert pilot plainly admitted her reluctance to a very important offer.

As part of the Friday Coalition's strategy to employ foreign expert pilots to gain a numbers advantage in high-end mech combat, its diplomats had already reached out to the Vesia Kingdom.

Venerable Relia Foster was a particularly prized commodity in the eyes of the Friday Coalition. With her amazing genetic aptitude and unconstrained growth, she was already destined to become a powerful expert pilot.

Advancing to ace pilot was not out of the question either!

Therefore, the Friday Coalition offered substantial compensation to the Vesia Kingdom in order to obtain Venerable Foster.

Unfortunately, expert pilots couldn't be bought and sold like cattle.

Their strong will and rigid principles made it so that they could never be persuaded to do something that acted against their own purpose.

Every expert pilot needed to be persuaded to fight on behalf of the Friday Coalition. While there are several expert pilots who eagerly grasped at the opportunity to enter a higher arena of combat, there are more expert pilots who were incredibly stubborn!

Venerable Foster grew up with a great amount of loyalty and affection for the Hafner Duchy and Vesia Kingdom. She could not bear to turn her back against her own state. Not when they did so much to nurture her and enable her to grow into power.

The negotiators from the Friday Coalition were aware of the nature of expert pilots, so they tailored their offers.

For example, Venerable Foster received an offer that stated that she was only obliged to fight for the Friday Coalition for a duration of 20 years.

During that time, the Friday Coalition would take charge of everything related to her training, augmentations, expert mechs and so on. In exchange, she was only expected to fight the enemies of the Fridaymen, which in this case meant the Hexers!

Knowing that Foster was devoted to the Vesia Kingdom, the Fridayman negotiators also offered to support her state with economic subsidies and various infrastructure programs.

The Vesians sorely needed this assistance after waging two successive wars! The Sand War especially wrecked a lot of Vesian star systems, and it took trillions of nova sovereigns to rebuild everything.

On top of that, the Vesians also intended to claim and colonize much of the devastated territories of the border states that had fallen to the sandman invasion. Colonizing so many star systems when the Kingdom was already deep in debt was incredibly difficult!

Facing this choice, Venerable Foster was already leaning towards accepting this deal. In any case, even if she was a woman, the Hexadric Hegemony posed a very serious threat to her home state. Helping the noble Fridaymen fight back the unreasonable Hexers was for a good cause!

Yet the news of the introduction of the Blessed Squire caused the normally decisive and fearless expert pilot to express considerable doubt!

"Are you.. reluctant to face Mr. Larkinson's work in battle?" Lady Amalia asked with furrowed brows.

"I am not threatened by this detestable fellow's mechs. It is the regular Fridaymen soldiers who need to fear his glows. Just a single mech model is able to swing the tide of a planetary battlefield. What if this mech model spreads? What if Mr. Larkinson introduces more Hexer mechs?"

Lady Amalia loudly chuckled. "You are letting the Devil Tongue's reputation get the better of you! Do you truly think that a single mech designer can never single-handedly topple an entire state? The Friday Coalition is filled with great and powerful Masters! Anyone of them can probably develop a counter to Mr. Larkinson's specialty. Otherwise, they do not deserve their exalted titles. Have faith in the Friday Coalition. Their rulers are far more rational than their Hexer counterparts. Ignorance can never prevail. Only the wisest and most enlightened state shall rule over our star sector."

Venerable Foster looked unamused at the noblewoman. "You sound like a Brighter."

"I have never disrespected our old opponents."

The expert pilot gestured at the sand-scoured planet floating in the distance. "For all their cleverness, the Bright Republic has fallen into ruin. Only an empty shell remains. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because being clever doesn't mean you are strong."

"..Does that mean you will reject the offer?"

A burning conviction started to form around Venerable Foster. "No. I intend to accept it. Regardless of the mechs that Mr. Larkinson provides to the Hexers, our state is already intricately tied to the Friday Coalition. It is my duty to advance the cause of the Vesia Kingdom!"

The Friday Coalition would soon welcome a new guest expert pilot in their ranks!

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